Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
In Los Angeles at the turn of the 1970s, drug-fueled detective Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of an ex-girlfriend.
Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of Pynchon's labyrinthine novel is a singular neo-noir achievement. The cinematography by Robert Elswit is sun-drenched and hazy, perfectly capturing the paranoid dissolution of 1960s idealism into the murky 1970s. Joaquin Phoenix delivers a masterfully physical, comedically precise performance as Doc, surrounded by an exceptional ensemble. The film is deeply distinctive — its tone, rhythm, and Pynchonian voice are unlike anything else in American cinema, earning high Novelty. The plot is deliberately, almost defiantly convoluted, which works thematically but alienates many viewers — rated above average for its purposeful density rather than docked for complexity. The ending, however, dissipates rather than resolves, feeling more like the fog rolling in than a satisfying culmination, even accounting for the intentional ambiguity.